Happy Birthday Dad!

I think I'll try calling you now...

A nice day...

Today was a beautiful summer day! After 40 degree weather yesterday today was really fresh. We stayed home today and it was wonderful. I got all the laundry done and dried outside, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, did a little quilting and started working on a dress for Anneke. Oh yea...I also took care of the kids :)


Here're my loaded lines - Mom, look how beautiful the geraniums are!

This is the quilt I pieced in a class about a year and a half ago that I'm hand quilting. It's been stored away for a few months but I took it out a few weeks ago again. I really enjoy hand quilting but I think I'll be practicing on the machine, otherwise I'll never finish anything!

And...a peak at the fabric for Anneke's dress. It's been a while since I've sewn something like this so it's a challenge, but I got all the pieces cut out tonight.

Ellen's Quilt

Today we gave Ellen her quilt. She is the grade 3/4 teacher at the elementary school and is moving back to Holland after being here for 4 years. The quilt is made up a squares from the church and school community and then we (I say we but I didn't actually do all that much quilting on it) put it together for her. Anyway, the teachers and students surprised her with an afternoon presentation/social. It was very nice. I think everyone here will miss Ellen very much. Here are a couple pictures of her receiving the quilt and the kids singing goodbye. Hopefully I can get a good close-up shot of it on Friday at the graduation. (click on the pictures to get a closer look)

Tessa's Walking!

Our baby isn't a baby anymore :-( It's still very exciting though! She has been taking steps for a few weeks now and then on Sunday she decided she could do it and I haven't seen her crawl since. If she falls down she just gets right back up again even if she's only a foot from where she wants to go.

Here she goes...

She's getting so big - trying to colour with the other kids...

and she loves to put things on. Here she is with Anneke's helmet and a little back pack, walking around as if she has places to go :)

Water

This past week has been nice and warm and the kids have been playing outside in the water a lot. On Wednesday we went to the splash pad for playgroup and on Thursday Chantal and Alyssa came over for the day and they were all playing in the little pool. Here are some pictures...

At the splash pad

Cooling off

Chantal

Alyssa

Anneke

Lukas

Planning our trip

Yes that's right...we're really planning to go out to BC this summer! Yea!! We've decided to drive across and make it a long holiday. I'm a bit nervous how the drive will go with 3 little kids but Conrad is confident it'll go fine :). We'll see...
We joined CAA and are figuring out which way to go. We'll go both ways through the states as it's faster and we've driven through Canada 5 years ago when we moved out here. If all goes well with Conrad's defense on July 9 then we hope, DV, to leave on the 16th.